SoccerWise - End Of MLS Season Primer & US/CAN Crucial Players To Watch

Episode Date: September 11, 2025

The international window has finally come to a close and there is plenty to talk about. First Tom & David look back on the window that was and what we should take from the week and who we need to track going forward. Then they have your rundown of what you need to be focused on and remember as we come back into the stretch run of MLS.4:50 USMNT's Future With Five In The Back14:15 Who's Club Play Is Most Important To USMNT Fans19:05 Tom's USMNT Best XI Today24:40 Derek Cornelius & Canada's Stars Of The Window28:30 FINALLY Last MIA-SEA Suspension Conversation33:30 Miles Robinson Signs DP Deal38:14 Supporter Shield Race Primer For PHI, SD & MIA45:45 Final Playoff Push & Worries For RBNY Playoff Streak

What is up, everybody, welcome back to soccer-wise, David Goss and Tommy Scoops for another big show coming up, coming off the international break, heading back into Major League Soccer. Tom, we're in the stretch run. I keep using the phrase end game. which I had never used before, then Garth used it. Well, Garth used it when I think Seattle won CCL. And I was like, isn't that from Avengers? And then I never actually looked it up or used it correctly. And now I use it a lot and I've still never looked it up.

And I think I'm just going to choose to be ignorant about it and continue to incorrectly use it for the rest of my life. Alpha moves only. You just say stuff like end game. You just say things like CMO, CFO, stuff like that. Yeah, I get it. you know, we're in different stratosphere these days, Goss,

and I'm just trying to keep up and you get up at 5 a.m. and do CrossFit, and it is what it is. I sleep in a little longer. It's okay. Yeah, but then you shatter, you shatter the interwaves with breaking news around U-15 national team losses, U-17 signings, an Orange County S.C.

Listen, David Goss wakes up at 4 a.m. Guess what? 4 a.m. to 10 a.m.? That's day number one. I've already done one day before you woke up and got out of bed. I'm on the day number two by lunch. Here's the thing is, so I work in consulting. I don't know if you know about this. And what I do is I consult with someone for $90 an hour.

And if I do five of those, now I've made almost $500 in five hours. And what I'm doing is I'm making $2,000 a day. I'm moving those $2,000 into a fund. And if you want to make the same amount of money, if you pay me, I'll bring you along with me. This is my full Miami mode. This is who I am now. The video you recorded for social, that's what it felt like. If only you had a tailored black-on-black or white-on-white suit,

that was the only way that it would have been better. Yeah. Standing on the balcony. Listen, dude, the decision is yours. If you want to be great, choose to be great. If you don't, then you don't. How many influencers live in your building other than you? I have a lot more than you.

I think I probably have the least followers of any person in my 50-story building that I live in on any platform in social media. It is like full on out. The best is when you see them with the one-person. pound weight just like explaining how to do a workout and it's like are you going to work out after that you're just going to do the one pound weight thing whatever to each their own to each their own um we are very excited about the show to come uh we have a big week already here at kickback at soccer wise me and jordan angelae have already broken down the jaden shaw trade which was mind blowing on

monday night tom i'm a little bit sad that you weren't able to uh break that news as well 1.5 million across allocation funds, the record trade in NWSL by more than double Allie Centaur last month, which was 600,000. So we talked about that, and Bayfc, moving on from their coach, myself and Susanna Fuller did a kickback committee show where we talked about all the great stories that happened around World Cup qualifying in Concaf, in Africa, across Europe, across Africa, all the different things.

I said Africa twice. The third content I was going to say, which was South America. Great start here. But all the wild and wacky stories, I'm getting excited about World Cup stuff. I put in my bid for tickets yesterday. Did you do the same top? A capital J's. We go into the press box.

Oh. You're going to be sitting midfield right behind Carlisancholotti. I'm going to be squeezed between Tenorio and Doug McIntyre, just loving life. It's going to be perfect. Hey, at least you won't have to take a train 18 hours across Russia to get there. There's been worst world cups to be squeezed between Doug McIntyre and Baltimore. I would love to be on that train ride with Pauli and Doug. That sounds electric to me.

It sounds like the highlight of the truth. I did one of those trains from Moscow to St. Petersburg. I figured that wasn't just something you pulled out of nowhere. I figured that was the way people were getting around. I was just picking a different country. And it was like not air conditioned, which is, I guess. deal in June and July. And I walked through the train at one point, and there was like people cooking food on

open flames in cans. Hell yeah. And like babushkas with the whole outfit on and stuff. It was a wildlife experience. So, World Cup coming. We talked about that on kickback committee. And we did some USM&T on our show on Monday, but we're going to do a little bit more today. And then we're going to get you reset for Major League Soccer for the most part.

teams have five games left it's mLS so some teams have nine some teams have five some teams have six some teams have seven uh we have a lot to talk about in all of that so we're going to get your reset recapped and as i said tom of course always breaking news um let's start with the u.s and canada and let's just ask the big question do we learn anything against japan for the u.s men's national team it was a two zero victory they scored goals all of it was more fun uh what did you take away so even before getting to the more important point of did we learn anything slash what did we learn it was just nice to have a day where the sky wasn't falling down it didn't feel like everything stunk and there was no light at the end of the tunnel yes japan

had a rotated lineup but they're still a very good team um and they did bring on a lot of those like key key players everybody but um the the attacker that had played for sociadatacubo i don't like I was the name there. But for the most part, you know, Endo came in. This is still a good team. And there is space for both to say, yes, this wasn't their best 11. And also being like, you know, it's nice playing well and winning. Right.

Like, so just enjoy the win, even for a day before all the criticisms come in or all the, yeah, but. And again, those are fair and worthwhile. But first and foremost, wasn't it just nice to have a win? Gotts. Yeah. It was cool when they scored a goal. That was fun. It was, like, super cool when they scored a second one.

And then when they didn't give up any goals and they won the game, I thought that was, like, a really good tactic to have as well. So I was into it. The big takeaway from the game, and this was a continuation from the last 30 minutes against South Korea, which we talked about on Monday show. We already called it. We already knew that. Which was positive, but also pointing out that there was a lot of changes. I was just resetting.

Sorry, that was going to take half a sentence, gosh. making money moves at all times you can't no time no time to look at the past um that was a continuation of the back three and essentially those three players that was the foundation

plus Matt freezes a goalie it looked really good and I think the best look for this group and for this team is a back three because what the full backs swing backs are really good at is attacking or their struggle is defending

that's Arston that's Desd that's Freeman I think the only pro player who can can truly go both ways and a back four is Anthony Robinson. And even at that, like, he's more of like verticality, like more like Freeman rather than like Arfson and Dest, who I think can eliminate players off the dribble. So I like that, and I like the foundation of having Tyler Adams

sitting in front of that back three or having the freedom to kind of go press forward. And then Pulisic, he doesn't have to play as quite a winger, but he doesn't have to play quite a 10. I love him in those half channels. Then there is freedom to, okay, maybe we can play two forwards at once. Or it's Pulisic and Tilman, or it's Pulisicic and whoever, right? I think that this system has the best chance of both a baseline floor and giving attacking freedom

to the most important player. So I do think that is the biggest takeaway and the most important thing from this window here is that I really hope we see the back three continue. I agree with you. I do think, so I don't know that it fits all the talent best possible, but I think it's a proper acknowledgement of like, we're not going to blow it. teams away and open up the game and take teams on. So therefore, this is the best situation for talent and tactics, which is we're going to be a little bit more defensive because that's

where we are now. Like we're into September of 2025. We are not going to create this cohesive flowing unit by June of 2026. And if you acknowledge that, then you step into a format here where, okay, if you're going to be defensive, you're going to be more solid in this setup. and then if you're looking at your team and you're saying what's our elite talent that we want to take advantage of, I think it's fair to say that the fullbacks and wingbacks are that

where maybe a few years ago you would have been like, well, we have to get Giorina, Timothy, Wea, Christian Pulisic and whoever else, in the best position possible. That might not be the case in this setup, but if you think Dest and Jedi

are the keys to your team, then that is the case. And I think that's a huge question that you have to answer because I think I agree on Pulisic. Like there's a lot of spaces he can take up in this that are comfortable. He is not an elite 1V1 chance creator out on the wing

or he hasn't been for the U.S. I think maybe some of that is the amount of attention that he gets, maybe also how predictable Jedi's movement is. Not that it isn't effective. Right, right, right. But like you always know he's going outside. And maybe Pulisic sitting inside gives you a little bit more threat. I don't know that that's the case

for all the other attacking players but we're kind of at the point where like none of them have elevated their game and carry the team and so fitting the formation for Timothy Wea or if it is, it ends up being a reina or Diego Luna or whoever else, that's not the point

of what you're doing like those are not the guys you're building the whole thing around still need to see Wes and McKinney in it I think that's like a big piece of it because his runs at a midfield that's where he's most dangerous and still to see him fit into it, but I think it makes them defensively solid. I think, as you said, it makes the game predictable and easier. I have said many times, I would like to see Desk come inside

and be in possession centrally and then go outside. And like, I think this allows him to do all of those things. And if it's not those two, it could be way up, it could be Arfston, whoever else it is, Freeman, whoever it is, I think all of that talent is more dangerous in this setup and can be game changers for them. Yeah, and it does, it will create, or has the possibility to create some headaches for Pochitino of, all right, like, in that left wingback spot, do we want Anthony Robinson? Do we want Orson? Do we want Tim Wea to be there? Because I don't think Timway makes sense at all in that, like, half-space line where we're talking about Pulisic, we're talking about Tilman, we're talking about Zendejas or whoever else, Luna, that might get a run. I don't

think that way his game fits that. He fits wingback in this system better. But Robinson is, I think, behind Pool Sick and Richards, the most, and Adam, sorry, the most accomplished high-level, consistent player in this pool. And this doesn't exactly fit, like, do you play them out, like, left-center back? It's like they didn't invert a full-back type thing. And then where does Ream play? Does Ream play? Like, there are a couple knock-on decisions that get a little bit awkward, but I think for the greater good of the group, this is what makes. makes the most sense. And we'll see how it goes and where it lands. McKinney, that was a good

point. I think that with a back three and Tyler Adams next to you, you got all the space in the world to make those runs forward without having to worry about getting countered. And that's not that's not the same if you're playing a 4-2-3-1 or even a 4-33 because then like if he's playing next, if it's a 4-3 with Adams as a 6 and McKinney as an 8 and let's just say Tillman as an 8 or insert any other player in the pool as the other 8, well really only, one of them can go because the fullbacks are both going to want to get forward and then you're exposed. So for me, this still allows McKinney to do kind of what he's best at, even if the fit doesn't look like that on paper. I think in practice it plays out that way because there's the

back three will be home and Adams is there. And with those four and when that fourth guy is Adams, you can take more liberties in the attack. Kevin Morris in the chat says how crazy it would be to try Destin that right attacker spot with Waya as the wingback. I have said many times, like, I think the U.S. could use Dest in a lot of different ways. I think most of it will come from his movement out of a right-wing-back position, because

I think partially it's like him being in the most natural positions, but it's not outside the realm of, like, player plays here for their club and then plays in a separate style or a separate position for their national team, whether it's moving more central, whether it's moving higher up the field. Like, we have

seen it for some really high-level players who are different than the rest of the the pool or better than the rest of the pool the problem with desk is like consistency the problem the reason you like can't move him central and people don't i think is because i don't think he's locked in often enough to be reacting at all times if you move him higher up maybe it works but in that scenario you're sort of swapping him in waya and it's fine it we're talking about starting positions then right of like the game develops all the phases of the game they're in different areas they're in different moments like you're probably getting that um a lot of the time but i think

it's a good question. And I do think that if you change your setup a little, you start to get to play with all the tools that Dest has. And I do think that's difference maker stuff for the U.S. Because again, none of the other attacking pieces has elevated their game to consistently be good enough to be the reason that you're building it all around outside of Polisic. And so if Dest is going to do it, then you can give that opportunity and you can go after it. So let's talk about some of the players that we want to watch here and some of the players that we're focused on

coming out of this time because now we're back into club play. For me it's Florian Bolligan like yes. I'm watching Monaco games I was going to anyway I want to.

I think there's some other players around there but like I said it twice now this week it's his spot right now to lose I want to see how he plays I want to see where he looks comfortable now having come back from injury being a starter and I want to see

if he's finishing his chances. Completely agreed. We talk I'd nauseam about the number nine spot with the national team. Bougain in the, what did he play, about 100 combined minutes, really easily looked better than Sargent, looked better than Downs,

though Downs didn't have the same run. He's a better player than Downs. I think Sargent's best can compete with Baligan, but we haven't seen it for the national team since I think before the 22 World Cup. So we're talking about that in theory. And then again, of course, like Ricardo Pappy,

when he gets back into the national team, when he's completely back from injury as he is now and has a little bit of run of form and gets to play. We'll see what that looks like. like, but for right now, it is Balagan's spot to lose. And that's somebody that you're right should be the focus because it's such an important position. And it makes things a lot easier. And even Pochino coming out of the South Korea game saying, you know, hey, we need to be more

clinical in both boxes and saying, you know, we played better, but, you know, they just were better in both boxes. I still disagree with. But you know what makes the game look easier and makes those underlying stats look better? Forward's at score. And Balagin, I thought he was really, really good against Japan. One for me is Tim Wea. It's more about his positioning, honestly, and decisiveness in a final third. It is difficult to, like, it's super valuable how elastic he is with his positioning and he's so intelligent and he's so good at so many different things. But part of the issue is, is like, all right, you're playing left back. That's a different set of responsibilities and even mentalities than when you're playing winger. And that plagued him against

South Korea, like his decision-making wasn't great, and his final third end product wasn't great. So for Marseille, he's played, his two starts have come at left-back and left-wing. So I think we're probably going to see, that's what makes him so valuable to a club like Marseille, but that kind of makes it a little bit more difficult for when he comes back to the national team because he's playing a different role than he plays for club, or particularly when this team plays 4-3-3, he's a winger. He's not a left-backer. He could play wing-back. That's why I think that that makes sense in the back three system. So I'm curious to see if he does just start getting a consistent run of game

at any one position, I don't think that's going to happen because, again, he's such a valuable squad player starter because he can allow other players to come in and out of team. He helps so much with rotation because he can play so many different positions. So I'm fearing that it's going to be more of that. And it's great for him, and that's most important, because that's why he's playing in a team like Marseilles.

That's why he was at Juventus. That's why he's had so many opportunities this career, but for the national team specifically, it doesn't do them favors. Yeah. For me, it's the centerbacks because if they're going to play three in the back, there's an opening. I know people feel strongly about Tristan Blackman's performance in the first game. I think one, all of the issues came in a back four, not a back five or three, whatever you want to call it. And so that now shifts it, and he has played that for large stretches of time, both with LASC and Vancouver. and his athleticism is unique, but my guess would be it's not his spot.

And so I think there's a number of players. We'll talk about Miles Robinson coming up in our MLS segment, but that's one of the players that's going to be in that conversation. I think Mark McKenzie makes a lot of sense in a setup like this because I think he can fit in to that right centerback spot. He's comfortable in possession. There's a little bit more freedom to step forward, but also has the ability to cover over the top.

And reminder, you're going to be covering for a situation. Gino Dest a lot, and it's easier as a, you know, third centerback, but it's still work that you have to go out onto the sideline and be able to defend in those spaces. But also the three in the back, it like brings Austin Trustee back in the conversation. That's where he's had his success. George Campbell, if he has a good year, could get around there. I think Cameron Carter Vickers now in this type of setup could be more useful. Like, you need a third centerback, so it puts pressure on this now where you're going, well, we only believe in one of our centerbacks. and now we need three, but I also think it brings other attributes and other styles of centerbacks

back into the convo, and there are more of those in the U.S. pool than the lockdown belief starter. Yeah, and that's a really good point, because again, it is Chris Richards and then everybody else. And I think Ream is obviously the first choice pairing with Richards. In a back three, I think Ream thrives. But so that also brings, so this is going to change 100 times between now and the World Cup, but it's fun to do anyway. coming out of the September camp, what each of our kind of best choice 11 is for this national team. And for me, so on to the back three, Matt Fries, I thought he was good in this window.

I think it's his job to lose now as well. It's not a stranglehold on the spot, but we love Matt Fries around here. And I think he didn't do anything wrong to lose that spot. And again, I think Turner and Stefan will push him and we'll see what happens for the rest of the MLS season and beyond. And he's an upstanding HAVIN, man. smart kid um yeah so i'm i'm put freezing goal the back three i keep on waffling a little bit on this because the more and and doyle brought this point up of like potratino wants wingbacks who can eliminate somebody off the dribble that's not quite anthony robinson's game so i'm gonna i would say a back three and i think that he's smart enough to play left centerback then you can

put then you can put rich keep richards in the middle and then i still trust tim ream enough to play at right centerback, even as a left-footed player, though I think that that opens the door for more options because he is better as a left-center back, but I'd rather have Robinson out there. So that's a back three, but that's, again, I could very easily be talked into three natural centerbacks. I get the point with Jedi, like the thing Owingback would do

is he's a good on the field, man. But it's being a left centerback's also not his skill set, right? So if, like, where you have to put him on a hierarchy of where he sits in the team, You have to put what he does and what he brings in that hierarchy and say, what are you looking for? My guess is that Pochitino comes out where you just did, which is, I just want him on the field. He's a competitor. He's played in high-level games.

And if that's the case, it'll be at left-wing back. Okay. Because the holes at left-center back for him are more questionable of, like, covering the space, defending. Like, is he really going to push forward from that spot? Because if he does push forward, he's pushing in the field in areas where he does. doesn't play. He doesn't like to come inside as a fullback. So my guess will be he's a left wing back who isn't ideal in this system. And like that's just something you accept. And then I like again, that's why I'm waffling on this like, I think I would like to see a run of him playing

left wing back just so that, okay, if it does not look, if it looks pretty awkward, then we reassess. All right, I'll take that back. I would say Joe Scali to me has more potential as a center back. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I just. But not another guy. Maybe a guy that you don't feel like you have to shove into the team. And he doesn't seem to be anywhere near being in favor in Pochititino. So, yeah, then it would be remit, left centerback, Richards in the middle, and then whether it's Miles Robinson, whether it's Mark McKenzie, whether it's, again, I think Austin Trussie, though he's a left-footed centerback as well.

And honestly, Tristan Blackman is best in that system. So, and he picks somebody there. So then put Jedi at left wing back, Adams and McKenney in the middle. and then I'm still going to lean desk at right wingback though I really liked how Freeman looked in that spot in that role and his verticality but then again there's a lot of similarities in the style between Jedi and Freeman of just vertical runners rather than desk gives you something different and being players of dribble

think about all those moments versus Japan where I think Freeman did the right thing he picked up the right spaces internally and he got the ball in gaps and he charged forward there's one where he tries to play maybe Zendejas off the shoulder as he's charging the other mode but all these areas he picked up the ball that aren't really his spots and now imagine desks in those spots attacking centrally and taking guys on does he get into the like does he have the pace of verticality

and the motor to do what Freeman to Freeman getting in those spots is that's like that's my question I think a lot of it was the US sucked the initial line of pressure up and it was more reading where the gaps were than purely just the athleticism of like, okay, Freeman got along the backline. Like, a lot of this stuff was more in the gaps between the lines. And I think that's where I thought that's was pretty good

against South Korea in those moments. And I thought the U.S. was worse in their buildouts in that game over the course of the full game. And so I think the potential there is really, really high. Again, I think that's fair too. And again, like with desk quality, as much as I really, really like Freeman, they are different players.

So I think that that can help with decision-making or game states and stuff. But Freeman is like a crazy wild card off the bench because of his size for set pieces and the way he plays. Like very rarely are you like, oh, we should we should bring on a fullback to try and chase the game. But like Freeman's kind of the ideal option for that. Yeah. No, and then again, like we'll see how this all develops. And then the front three pretty easy for me at this point.

Pool is sick and Tillman underneath Baligan. But there are plenty, plenty of options and we'll see where the form is. Shout out to Malik Tillman for getting out of the Eric Tenhock Torture Chamber. two games on the team that's that's very happy for him uh but if if he's playing consistently and playing well for buyer levickees then that's it that's his spot for me yeah yeah that's gonna be a really interesting one to follow what does your 11 look like i'm not gonna do an 11 tom i just like to edit on you coward i'm an editor i'm an editor i'm not i'm a consultant i'm a consultant exactly i'm not a building 90 dollars please don't worry your invoice will be coming but it will be

only via crypto coin. So you can pay directly into my crypto account. I'll probably be buying five different apes off the back of this. So you don't have to worry about it. A dead drop behind a bench. Let me just finish off here. We actually had a question in the chat. How much Blackman, how much would Tristan Blackman be appreciated in Canada? Oh my God. Because the rumors were around. Well, I would actually disagree a little bit, which is where I will take us for the Canada conversation. Canada beating Wales one zero. They go undefeated in their two European trips or their two games in Europe. As I said, historic win

against Romania on the last show. First time they beat a European host team in 16 years. Then they go to Wales under Craig Bellamy. Rotated team obviously not in World Cup qualifying or whatever for them. But still a really good result. Also, rotated team for Canada. The star

of the game was Derek Cornelius. Derek Cornelius hits. If you haven't watched it, Unreal direct free kick from... I'm sorry, Derek Cornelius wasn't familiar with your game. 25 yards away from goal, left-footed, like he smacks this free kick. And then this is a back-to-back shutout for Canada. So Derek Cornelius plays centerback, helps lead it from the backline,

rotations in goal, rotations at fullback, not having Moist Bombito as your partner, and they're still able to see out two shutouts and a huge part of that is Derek Cornelius. I say they wouldn't miss Blackmun as much because Moisbomboe and Derek Cornelius are the starters. Like, he would not be a starter on the, this team. So you'd always take death, although DeFugaloo, what I would take death. I would take

death. DeForgalus, whatever, however you pronounce it, has played well. He's a young kid. He probably shouldn't be starting in some of these big games. So yes, there's a little bit of question marks as you get down. Joel Waterman, the next option up. Like maybe Blackman fits in there. But my point being, Canada in 2022 World Cup, they were trying to figure out systems to hide their deficiencies at centerback. It's like Stephen Victoria was still the starter. They played the hide line. They couldn't because of them.

But they felt like they also couldn't sit in because they couldn't have teams attacking these guys for a large amount of times. Now centerback is a position of strength for this team. And if you're talking about who you're watching going forward, Ismail Cone is my number one. I will keep saying that. How much does he play at Suswello? How much can he play?

I thought Saliba looked really good in this camp. How many minutes can he keep getting in? Belgium. He is a pit bull, and he's so clean on the ball. And if he makes mistakes, you can't get it off him because he will just body you down. And he can hit it clean on the run, all that type of stuff. But Derek Cornelius now, on loan to Rangers, is a huge one that I'm going to be watching. We had a conversation in the Discord coming out of the game. I felt at the time, and I talked about this on shows. I didn't think Vancouver used Theo Baer and Derek Cornelius as much as they could of this was a different vancouver so i don't want to like bring us into the dark days again like this

is not an axel schuster yesper sorensen problem right but this was they played bear as a winger which i actually thought was good for his career like it made him do other things on the field than just be a tall center forward the two of them have now gone out and played legitimate league on minutes derrick cornelius is now like a one a center back and they got five hundred thousand for him but less on the money side and more of the like Vancouver played him one year and then was like oh we got to send this guy on loan so he could develop and never really got the fruits of playing them it is the Canadian story all of this is still better than TFC just losing guys out of their academy potentially even to Vancouver like Ali Abed or Montreal but it's still like

reminds me of these dark days and what happened shout out to Derek Cornel this huge international window for him and a big one for Canada overall and the right steps for them going towards the World Cup. All right. You ready to dig in on some Major League Soccer? Let's do it. All right. Let's start with the last bit of suspension talk, Tom. What do you want to talk about about suspension? We don't have to go too long because we've talked plenty. So MLS added suspensions as I firmly expected. Louis Suarez got an additional three MLS games for spitting and Stephen Lennart has had his credential revoked for the rest of the season

and Seattle was fine for misappropriation of credentials pretty much who's allowed to be on the sideline so I thought that was interesting there's 60,000 people in the building how can we keep track of everyone so I understand that

and both things again can be true I think Stephen Lenhart was well within his rights to see one of the players on the team getting choked and start swinging like I'm kind of okay with that but also I'm totally okay with the punishment because like can't have coaches not instigating a fight but definitely escalating a fight even if it's Stephen Lennhardt which I think a couple of Miami players should have looked and

been like business decision I'm going to go find somebody else to swing it okay here's what I don't get and I tried to express this on blue sky louis Suarez suspended six games by the league's cup committee right correct for his actions after the game right now None of it's during the game. Correct. Why is he suspended three games in MLS? Either what he did in Leagues Cup is so bad that the suspension also goes into MLS, or you're not suspending him for another competition.

I don't understand sitting down and being like, let's also rule on this thing, and we think it's half as bad as them. I don't, I would take away the math on it. And I will start with- God do the math, man. God do the math. Well, then we're going to get into these old, like, you know, it was six games for a racial slur.

Three games for spinning. I don't want to get into any of that. Let me get my notebook. My notebook. I think Michael Scott says there's a rubric on the inside. How does this translate? Yeah, how does the star equal a plus sign? Let me start.

You earned that sip of coffee. Let me start with Suarez, I think, should have been suspended for longer by MLS. I don't think he should have been banned forever, as some people were calling. But I think while this was in, weirdly, this was aligned with previous spitting suspensions. I think this was a great opportunity to set a new standard for it.

If you spit in an old man's face, you should be suspended for a while. And you could point to say, well, six Leaves Cup game plus three MLS games, that's a total of nine games. I don't... Two different entities. Exactly. And again, we've been assuming all year long

Swares isn't coming back. And that's just an assumption. We don't know that for sure. But if he retires this winter, it's just a three game suspension. because there was always that possibility. Same thing with Bousquettes. Or maybe Orlando finally figure, or Miami, Orlando, sorry, finally figures out we don't really care about Leagues Cup next year,

which may be forced on them if Suarez doesn't retire. And then he would be, like, if they get grouped in Leagues Cup next year, then his suspension continues at 2027. That's wild, yeah. Now you're on the Quatamac Blanco, Clint, M.C. Like, hey, by the way, check the top of the press release every single match week,

just to see when Suarez it stops to that. If he comes out of retirement for another team. so for me yeah it's not enough it's it's not enough but again i think that there was somewhere in the middle of you know three games is too low you know banned for the rest of the season i think would be too much and again i'm not defending the actions in any way but like we do we can't just be punitive and then like the mspa has to be involved in suspension too right like so you need to take that into consideration and their job as a union just like the NFL's union just like MLB is defend the player and, you know, try to have the precedents be set at the lower,

as low as they can. That is their literal job. So on the like precedent that was said, spitting thing, whatever. So one, Ache Ache keeps getting brought up. He did not spit on anyone. He spit at someone, which I do think is different. I get it. It's bad.

The other thing is like, this is fairly reprehensible of like he stood on this guy's foot, like, all of this is more embarrassing and worse than doing. it to a player and doing it in the speed of, in the heat of the game. I think that's a great point. It's almost like premeditated. And again, he started the entire melee by his, like him and then Bousquetts. And by the way, I think Bousquet's had to have gotten at least a game. And he did.

And I don't love that. Maxie Falcone getting away from Leaks Cup and this with nothing is highway. Well, he went to the, he went to the committee thing. He's like, that wasn't me. That was Maxi Falcone. You got to go talk to Falcone. I'm just Falcone. we're two different people here is my point though if you are saying this is under our jurisdiction to punish

then it is the full actions of what occurred and if it's not then you don't and this weird in-between space of like all right we can get away with we'll do a little bit because it's not our thing i think that part is a little bit ridiculous um and it is going but but the three games are going to be big because we're going to talk about uh the sport of shield run in a second let's finish up though with your breaking news from the week, which is congratulations to the community. We've got a new designated player centerback. Miles Robinson, his new contract with FC Cincinnati. The contract itself was announced yesterday.

That's official as I first reported last month. I got the contract details this week. He is the highest paid centerback in MLS starting next year when the contract starts. It slightly eclipses Walker Zimmerin, which was like $3.47 million. And now he is a designated player. He cannot be bought down during the lifetime of this contract and he will be one of Cincinnati's three designated players. And right now, it is Miles Robinson, Avander, and Denke.

Avander and Denke arrived earlier this year and assuming that they're going to be here for long. So the knock-on effects here in the roster building side of things is, okay, Brenner's on loan, unless that there's some, and again, they've done some wizardry to like having Miasga, Miles Robinson, and Obine Woboto and Luca Oriano, all on Tam deals this season? Very impressive.

So I'm not going to rule anything out necessarily because Cizzi is really good at the cap stuff. But you would assume it's going to be difficult to keep Brenner given this news unless that there's a surprise move for, say, Avander, right? Who knows, right? Probably not, but just kind of laying out all of the pathways. And will this cause a problem with Matt Miasga?

Is he going to look at, hey, I won defender of the year? I was the one who came here and instilled a new culture defensively. I'm the one who turn the tides. Why is he getting now almost doubled in me? That's something that you have to worry about as well. And it brings on more questions in the future. My starting point here is Miles Robinson is one of the best centerbacks in the league.

When the athletic does their anonymous GM survey, he's either first or second in each of the last three years, something to that effect. He is in his prime, really, really good player. I understand the criticisms of just the roster building theories of making a DP centerback, particularly with how good this coaching staff is defensively and how many times the front office has brought in Hadaabe and Flores and Moskera and like Haglund's been very good. They have done, so it's like, hey, should we be investing the resources here? I will come back to fair questions, fair concerns.

Miles Robinson is one of the best centerbacks in MLS. I get it. I would, okay, so one thing on the Miazga thing, Miles Robinson's played 49 games for Cincinnati in the last two years in league play and Miazga's played 35. Like part of the reason Miles is going to get paid

is because he's been the reliable one for them and that's injuries but that's also the off-field stuff right? If you get yourself suspended like that's being unreliable. Now, neither of them have been flawless in those two categories but there's a clear difference and then the other thing is like, yeah, sometimes you sign a contract and that's the one you play on

and then they bring another talent. I think this is clear and we've heard it, I mean, Chris Albright said it on this show. Like, they're in win now mode. That's what this is to me is like bringing players in there's so much time it takes to get them situated, to get them at their peak level, all of this. And they are thinking we have to keep the group together because we are like head down and this is going to come up because they've been in bad form.

But like, we're probably talking about 14 more months of them saying like, we are in win now mode. This has to happen now. And maybe Denk extends that window if he like got the year next year and really hits and he's young and he wants to be there. And like you could build some of the rest around it. But just because of the roster mechanisms, like you're just not going to be able to keep all these guys around forever.

And so that's what this sort of reads to me. You also take away the transfer fee. It's like from pure money out of the pocket is like it kind of then evens out slightly in terms of what you're giving up for him. But it's a lot. Like it is a lot for. a team that has holes, has struggled to score goals to give the huge DP deal to Miles Robinson. I have said this over and over again, though, for Cincinnati, the floor razor is the spine.

It's Celentano. It's Miyazga. It's Robinson. And when healthy, the demids as well. And I think that's what you guarantee yourself with with this deal. It's like, we may not win supporter shield next year, but we're going to be competitive because there's not a game you go into with those guys as part of your backline that you're not going to be in and you can try and figure out the other stuff as you go along. Let's talk about this year though because we are into this final run now into the postseason. We have a supporter shield race not exactly as we expected it to be. It is Philadelphia and San Diego right now as the runaways as the two contenders with the potential for Miami to get into this. So Miami has four games in half.

hand to catch up on these teams, we feel like they need to take at least nine out of the potential 12 points from that to get themselves back into the conversation. If they took nine points out of the games they have in hand with the way things stand right now, they'd be two points off the supporter shield on even games played at the end of that. They'd be in second place. They would jump Cincinnati. They'd be behind Philly in the east. And they would be one point behind San Diego for the overall Supporters Shield race. To do that, Miami now placed three straight weeks of midweek games.

So they have, after Charlotte this weekend, Seattle coming into the building on Tuesday. Yeah, you heard that one right. You have Seattle coming into the building for a Leagues Cup Redux. Then you have NYCFC away. And then I don't know how I wrote this down.

What did I write here? TFC? Yeah. Where am I? Oh, I'm one line away. That's why. They play DC at NYCFC at TFC and then they come back for a midweek against Chicago and then they play the refs. I say all that in saying one, you're down Suarez for the first three of those games. Two, you are playing three straight weeks of midweek games and weekend games. And three, those are some of the worst teams in the league. So I don't know how to measure this, which is like if you told me this is a must-win week, and you've got three games in a week. Who do you want to play? I'd probably say DC at NBC and at TFC if I had to pick those games. NYCFC, obviously, a little different. Chicago and the Revs, they'd be on that list as well. They then finish with Atlanta, which is inside the FIFA window, because of the games they

have to make up. So think about this team. Venezuela didn't qualify. They're not in an intercom playoff. Maybe you keep a Lasco Segovia. I don't know. Yeah, that was heartbreaking stuff for them. But you may lose some pieces there.

and then they close with Nashville in the final game of this season. So that's the work Miami has to do to get back into this, Tom. And it's, it is not an impossible run, but it is not an easy setup. Yeah, first of all, this is an older team and the fixture congestion that will impact a more team. Take away Miami and take away, even just what I said. If you told me any team had four games in hand, I'm not expecting them to win all four. They can, right?

like they defied us at the end of last season despite like they weren't even playing i don't even think that great they were rescuing points late all the time in their run to set a new league record so they got it in them when it's messy and when it's a lot of those other players you kind of say you know maybe maybe not but for me i think it is i think it's possible that they take three out of those four games but i'm not sure if that's likely either because again they play like eight games and four weeks and then as you said the only other space like there's no midweek spaces left to make up another game they have to play atlanta during that october international It is a daunting run

And for a team that already set the league record in points Won the Shield last year And then got bounced in the first round To an historically Like the biggest gap in points For an elimination in MLS playoffs history I don't know that this is their priority Like they want to win everything of course

Yeah yeah But you don't I don't think that you burn everybody To the point of trying to get back in the shield race And then playoff start And you're risking that again So and again that could sure it could have happen if you rest players or not because that's just the fickle nature of playoffs. But for me, I got to assume Asherano's top priority is let's get to the playoffs in the best way

possible. And that is incongruent with let's win as many games to win the shield. So priorities are going to be interesting in this as well because the Philadelphia Union currently support a shared leader. They go to Vancouver this weekend, probably their toughest game left of the season. They then travel to play Nashville on Tuesday night in the the U.S. Open Cup semi-final. We're going to have a ton of open-cup coverage next week. We are very excited about the Open Cup semifinals. We have already booked Walker Zimmerman for the Kickback Committee Show,

who's one of our favorites, and we're going to be talking about all these games coming up. But so Philadelphia has that. Then they play the New England Revolution. They play at DC United. They play NYCFC, and they play at Charlotte. Now, if they made the Open Cup final, which would be on the road, because Philly cannot host at Minnesota or at Austin, it would fall between at DC and NYCFC in that stretch

before they head to Charlotte on the final week of this season. So now priorities again, you have to talk about for Philadelphia. What do they want to win? What's more likely? And obviously, I think the semifinal will decide some of this for them. They have shown, I think, good flexibility. They are not the deepest team in the league. And so there's going to be some decisions.

that they have to make as they come down the stretch because the other thing is MLS Cup as well. Like you want to be informed for the playoffs. You obviously have some time off and you have all of the, you know, three rounds. Like if you win the first round early, you have extra time off, blah, blah, blah, all of that. But this is not simple for Philadelphia. On the flip side for San Diego chasing them, they play Minnesota this weekend, which is probably their toughest game left. They play at Atlanta.

They host San Jose. and then they finish very difficult at Houston at Portland. Houston, in the playoff run right now, Portland are in the postseason. They will have something to play for. To go two on the road to close the year chasing Philadelphia is really, really tough as well. Yeah, I would agree. And if you asked me a month ago what I thought the shield race was going to be, I would have thought five teams, honestly.

And maybe that was naive. And right now it's two teams until like two and a half. half two and a half i mean if you like i still have doubts that miami will be able to and like i'll give the other half as well to vancouver vancouver have two games in hand if they win both of those games in hand and they would be philly head to head yes right right then that that's very important so i think vancouver are still realistically in the race as well um but still like Cincinnati's cratering over the last month has been i was very shocked by they've they got shut out and i think four of the last five games and again Nashville is a little bit off is off the pace now is

as well. So it's coming down to maybe three teams. It's still going to be, hopefully it'll still be fun because it should still go down to the final day, given how close the top two and potentially Vancouver and potentially Miami are. But for me, this was shaping up to be like, oh my God, there's seven teams that could realistically win this and, you know, teams have fallen out. One thing to note on Vancouver, they play the second leg of the Canadian Championship semi-final next week. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. If they win that, they'd be into the final, which is single game, not two legs, but that would be on top of the games they have to make up, which one of them is Orlando in the international break. They would have an additional game thrown in there as well,

plus that extra one. So a lot of games for them. So that is the handicap for you on all of this. We're excited to watch it come down to the wire. We're excited to watch this play out. On the other side of the table, the New York Red Bulls 15-year playoff streak is on life support, currently sitting two points behind Chicago. Chicago also has a game in hand, but that game is versus Miami. So I don't know how much you take from that. But for the Red Bulls, like this could be the year. It would be, I think you were saying to me pre-show, it would be the first year in Red Bull Arena.

Yeah. Since it opened that they would not be able to make the playoffs, which I think some fans might welcome at this point to see if it shakes something loose. And others will remember last year, which is like just getting in could mean a potential historic run all the way to a final. On the West, Colorado and San Jose are the last two playoff spots, even on games 36 and 35 points. Houston, right behind them on 33. And then RSL are four points back, but with two games in hand, those two games are versus LAFC and Seattle. So a lot to track in the Western Conference as well. And we didn't talk about the weekend results in

MLS, the four games that happened during the international break because we were sucked up with hating everything about the U.S. and loving Canada and all of that. But Austin beat sporting Kansas City and have moved up to sixth place in the Western Conference. So it feels like a playoff spot is coming for this Austin team and they can continue to move higher potentially as well. This week, some big games coming up this weekend. That Philadelphia, Vancouver game and that San Diego, Minnesota game, those are both in the late window on Saturday night. So it is going to be an MLS after dark classic. I will be on watching it on all

of our socials as well. So you can hit us up, Soccerwise, HQ, kickback committee, or if you haven't yet, subscribe to our Patreon. It gets you access to the Discord. It's the place to hang out and watch MLS. And then Cincinnati are hosting Nashville. Cincinnati have been in a tailspin.

Nashville, eyes on Open Cup, but I can tell you from the conversation with Walker Zimmer. They know that this is a big game and that they've got some action that they can make in the league as well so those are some of the big games to watch this weekend tom you want to pick a winner you want to pick a playoff team you want to put your money where your mouth is no i had cincy for the shield all season and and i'll take that out okay i still believe in seattle winning the whole thing is what i think my preseason pick was um and by that of course i meant leagues cup

as i always do when i say the whole thing at the start of the show so thank you to all of you for listening thank you to all of you for being here shout out to everyone in the chat for watching live and everyone listening as well. And we'll talk to all of you again very, very soon.